Jacoby Ellsbury's three hits lift Yanks past Cardinals, 7-4

Yankees center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury slides and catches a ball hit by St. Louis Cardinals' Allen Craig for an out during the second inning.

ST. LOUIS – This wasn’t Joe Girardi’s ‘A’ lineup against the Cardinals, not with Mark Teixeira, Alfonso Soriano, Derek Jeter and even Yangervis Solarte on the bench Wednesday night.

And Carlos Beltran, the free agent the Yanks plucked from the defending NL champs, has been on the disabled list since mid-May.

Still, a somewhat makeshift order produced a seven-run lead and pushed the Yankees to a 7-4 victory at Busch Stadium to conclude a winning road trip.

“There’s some guys that we’re missing (from the lineup)…but we’re scoring some runs,” said Girardi, whose club rebounded from Tuesday’s shutout loss and won Wednesday’s game with just one extra-base hit.

After splitting two games against the Cubs and four games with the White Sox at Chicago, the Yankees (28-24) won two of three against St. Louis (29-24) for a 5-4 mark – three of the victories coming in extra innings.

Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits, three RBI and two stolen bases. With Teixeira still nursing a sore wrist, Brian McCann (RBI single) made his first professional start at first base and rookie catcher John Ryan Murphy delivered a two-run single in a four-run third inning.

Hiroki Kuroda (4-3) kept it afloat, yielding three runs in 5.2 innings – a victory that required a four-out save by David Robertson. But it was a better showing than St. Louis right-hander Shelby Miller (6-4), tagged for seven runs in five innings.

In the ninth, Robertson struck out pinch-hitter Matt Adams and Daniel Descalso - both representing the tying run – to end it.

“It should have been (6-3) if I hadn’t blown that game against the White Sox,” Robertson said, referencing Adam Dunn’s game-winning, two-run homer last Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field. “But, it was a good trip for us, a lot of tough wins.”

In the Yanks’ final interleague game in an NL park this regular season, a crowd of 45,267 fans asked Jeter for a curtain call following a short video tribute.

The Yanks’ captain, retiring at season’s end, emerged from the visiting dugout and acknowledged their standing ovation with a tip of the cap and a wave. Jeter also acknowledged the applause from the Cardinals in their dugout.

“The fans have been great here in St. Louis,” Jeter said of receiving multiple standing ovations during his at-bats. When the fans began cheering for him Wednesday, Jeter said he was inside stretching. He came onto the field because “we were winning and I thought it was appropriate.”

Kuroda danced around some early-game trouble and kept the Cardinals from cashing in scoring chances.

In the second inning, Kuroda pitched around a Yadier Molina double and an error by shortstop Brendan Ryan, who bobbled a grounder and missed a chance at nailing Molina at third base.

One batter later, on a Peter Bourjos grounder, Molina was caught in a short rundown between third and home.

St. Louis loaded the bases with two out in the third but Kuroda fought back, getting Molina to pop out.

It was still a scoreless game when Brett Gardner’s one-out walk jump-started the Yankees’ third-inning rally.

A Brian Roberts single was followed by Ellsbury’s RBI single – a line drive to center. After Ellsbury singled and McCann walked, Murphy laced a two-run single to center and Ichiro Suzuki beat the relay to for an RBI fielder’s choice grounder and a 4-0 lead.

In the fourth, Kelly Johnson’s single and Roberts’ one-out double set up Ellsbury’s two-run single.

Once more, Ellsbury stole second without a throw from the rocket-armed Molina, and McCann’s RBI single made it 7-0.

“You always want to (succeed) against the best,” said Ellsbury, who was 3-for-3 in steal attempts against Molina; the catcher had thrown out 12 of 23 would-be base stealers entering Wednesday.

The Cards scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings off Kuroda, who was aided when reliever Dellin Betances retired Matt Holliday on a fly out with runners at the corners to end the sixth.

“I ended up giving up a lot of hits (nine),” Kuroda said through his interpreter. “But overall I got big outs, so it was OK.”

McCann subs for Teix

Heading into Wednesday’s game, the sum of Brian McCann’s professional experience at first base had consisted of three games and four innings – all this season – in late game work.

And after signing an $85 million free agent contract as the Yanks’ starting catcher for the next five years, McCann hadn’t spent much time perfecting his footwork at first base for a just-in-case scenario.